1905 Bistro & Bar Relaunching Brunch this Sunday

1905 Bistro & Bar is pleased to officially announce that Chef Joel Hatton – formerly of Shaw’s Tavern & Leopold’s Café in DC – has taken over the back of house duties as Executive Chef. Since joining the team at the end of January, the South Carolina native has put a definitive fingerprint on the restaurant, and plans to re-launch the brunch program this weekend with an entirely new menu.

For now, the new brunch menu will be available on Sundays from 11 AM – 3 PM, and features a mix of brunch staples along with a rotating selection of weekly specials. Featured items on the new menu include citrus Greek yogurt with house-made granola and strawberries ($6); chicken and waffle with cayenne honey ($12); truffled grits and pork belly with a sunnyside-up egg and scallions ($12); and an angus beef burger with Swiss cheese and balsamic onions on brioche roll with pickles and salad ($14). Egg options include a three-egg omelette with field greens ($12), a two eggs any style platter with toast and breakfast potatoes ($9), and soft scrambled eggs with cherry tomatoes, aged cheddar and a brioche roll ($10).

The bar is even getting in on the fun during brunch with bottomless options of Bloody Marys, Mimosas, and a Specialty Cocktail of the season for $15. Single glasses of each are also available for $7-$8. There is also a Beer-Mosa for $7, which is a blend of Avery White Rascal and orange juice.

Chef Hatton also has made significant changes to the restaurant’s dinner menu, adding bar snacks and a special Mussels Night on Tuesday nights. The Tuesday Night Mussel Night special includes a bowl of mussels incorporating a local beer in the broth, frites and a can/bottle of beer of your choice for $15. He is also working on a series of beer dinners, beginning next month in collaboration with DC Brau. More details to come!

Did anyone go to 1905 for Restaurant Week and notice the questionable pricing? (All but one option had customers paying the same or more, and not less, money ordering through the Restaurant Week “special” rather than a la carte. One option gave customers total savings of $1.) At least the food was good….

Well what was particularly bothersome with 1905 was that they had upcharges on several dishes to ensure that the Restaurant Week “special” would cost the customer the same or more than ordering the same items a la carte. It seemed like they were just trying to earn some extra money from some suckers without actually offering any discount (except the one entree that would save you $1).

Novadancer is right – Restaurant Week is only a good “deal” if you can get reservations at really expensive restaurants. Personally, I think that if you go out during Restaurant Week to try to save money, you’ll end up disappointed. It’s just a fun excuse to try new places. I go to 4-6 dinners every Restaurant Week and almost all of the restaurants have surcharges for the expensive items. Doesnt seem weird to me that 1905 would do that too.

They had surcharges for inexpensive items. A $22 entree had a $2 surcharge. When you did the math, you could get the $7 appetizer, $22 entree, and $7 dessert would cost you a la carte $36. The same exact items with the “special” were $37. They had that for everything, where at best the “special” was equal to a la carte, but in many combos was anywhere between $1 to $5 more expensive save for exactly one exception. In other words, there really was not any special.

I’ve been to a lot of places for RW and I know many places are really not a good deal. However, I have never seen anything like this where the restaurant goes out of the way to make it a worse deal than ordering the exact same food a la carte.

It’s probably their way of saying “We don’t like serving the a##holes who come here for Restaurant Week.”

When I worked at a high end restaurant in NYC, pretty much all of the kitchen and front-of-house staff disliked Restaurant Week. However, the restaurant owners forced us to do it. You usually get people demanding 5-star service and food for the price of a Blue Plate Special (and poorly tipping, to boot).